Spring is in the air, the docks are going in, but we’re in that weird transitional time in the Northeast when freak snowstorms still blow through. I always go through a type of cabin fever this time of year when the very last thing I want to do is another erg session. I am so done with indoor rowing that I am mentally guaranteed to have a poor quality workout. My visualizations are all about rowing, SUP, skating, running. So what do you do when the weather is awful? Jump in the pool! It will do you good for several reasons:

1. Every rower says they passed a swim test, but how many years ago was that? It doesn’t help you much in the single when your oarlock breaks in the middle of Mission Bay (speaking from experience). It never hurts to practice swimming when you’re going to be out in a boat, because there are situations in which you can be in the water for a long time, and you have to be comfortable and efficient either waiting for rescue or paddling a broken boat to shore.

2. It will work out all the kinks in your posterior chain, like magic. After doing squats and erg work all winter, swimming is like giving your spine and hips a nice massage.

3. It will tell you pretty quickly if you are weak in the shoulder girdle, and is a great exercise for injury prevention. Rowers tend to be immensely strong in one plane of motion, but weak through other portions of the whole 360-degree arc of the shoulder.

4. It’s really hard work, and forces you to focus on finding a breathing rhythm that works. Sound familiar?

5. It’s something new, it’s fun, it reminds you of summer, and it breaks you out of the erg room doldrums.

For 1000m racers, I’d recommend 250-meter (~3:50) repeats with 1:30 rest or something similar, and double that for 2000m racers. The intervals should be long enough that you have to find a way to glide vs. just muscling it through. If you are not a skilled swimmer, I’d recommend the Total Immersion DVD series as a good way to get decent, fast. You can get it on Netflix and often at your local library. If you want to get really technical, CrossFit Endurance’s Power, Speed, Endurance spends more time on swimming than anything else.

I found this recently on the Conditioning Research blog, and it sounded so weird that I had to try it. I figure that even if it’s completely bogus, maybe by successfully doing it I could trick my brain into giving me a few extra years on this Earth.

The idea is that if you can get up from the floor without using hands, knees, elbows, etc. for support, that is correlated with greater longevity.

Of course I had not watched the video of how to do it, so like an idiot I had to brainstorm it. Plus, I was not sitting, but prone. It was quite a puzzle to figure out even how to get into a semi-sitting position without using an elbow.

The method I came up with combined a backward rock (like an exaggerated hollow rock), followed by pulling my legs in and hitting an explosive butterfly situp motion led by my arms, rolling forward onto my feet and then standing up like an air squat using the outstretched arms to counterbalance. The whole thing is kind of like a swimming flip turn in reverse. It took me five tries to get the motion, but once I had the skill I nailed it! May I still be strong enough to do that when I’m 100 years old!

In short, it far exceeded my expectations. It deserves a place next to Tudor Bompa’s classic Periodization for Sport on my bookshelf, representing a radically alternative philosophy. PSE advocates constant variation with a lot of flexibility in programming, but also admits that in order to compete in endurance events, you have to practice the skill of the sport and do time trials at distance. Bompa agrees on the skill aspect, but advocates a highly regimented program that is proven but breaks down easily if you don’t have 800-1000 hours per year to devote to training. It will be interesting to read (or re-read in the case of Bompa) both books and draw out the nuggets from each.

I will tell you the following impacts in the first week:

1. I found out that what I thought was Pose running was not. When I tried it after reading the running skill section in the book, I was exhausted and felt like I had just done 1000 deadlifts, meaning that I was using completely different muscles. Humble pie indeed. In 25 years I had never thought about midline stabilization when running. Duh.

2. I got in the pool and found out I was actually swimming pretty well. Core engaged – check. Both push and pull on the kick – check. Etc. Etc. Again, never really thought about it before. Eye-opening.

Congrats to BMack on a great product. Plus it’s heavy enough to turn my backpack into a weighted vest!

During the early fall, there is an opportunity to reduce the focus on sport-specific training for rowing and work on cross-training and rebuilding parts of the body that have suffered over the high-intensity summer racing season.

For CrossFitters and rowers alike, there is also an opportunity to do some injury-proofing before changing over to indoor training in the winter months, with its heavier loads and the propensity of indoor rowing to overstress and compress the ribs and spine.

While I have never suffered a serious injury in my rowing career, as I get older the minor aches and pains resurface and remind me that it could happen at any time unless I take precautions.

For scullers, there is the additional challenge of jumping into sweep boats for head races. While the load and compression is less than that of sculling, the challenge of twisting and off-center forces increases the risk of injury if you’re not used to it.

Here are a few of my favorite exercises to develop core strength and injury-proof my body.

Turkish get-ups. CrossFitters will be familiar with these. I like to so them slowly and make sure I am fully stabilized in each position before progressing. These are especially good for developing stabilization on your weaker side for sweep rowing.

Hollow Rocks or raised leg circles – I usually start doing sets of 10, then continue until I can’t even do just one.

Back extensions or Supermans – especially important for rowers to flex the spine in the opposite direction we normally do.

Chop and Lift or Slash using the cable machine. As detailed in the Four Hour Body, these are easy to do in almost any gym since most have some form of cable machine.

Stand-up paddling on a stationary dock. This is incredibly hard. The resistance is huge and it takes a couple of seconds to complete each pull. The cross-body forces are large and it’s very exhausting. I usually do 30 reps each side then rest and switch. This is awesome for the ribcage.

Kayaking. It’s a different motion and uses the torso in unusual ways.

Off the water:

Land paddling on a longboard. This is insane fun, and involves even more twisting than traditional SUP as you have a sideways stance. I think this is especially fun for training on your weaker side if you are going to be jumping into a sweep boat for the fall. It preps your shoulders and ribs, and it gets you paying attention to precision on your “goofy” side, which for me is starboard.

Right now I am trying to get at least 2 sessions in per week that focus on core stability and strength.

I don’t know about you, but I’m cooked after the first real week of “winter” training here on the Beast Coast where the docks are out and the ergs are in. During the fall, I spent a lot of time deliberately building left/right imbalances in order to compete in sweep boats. Now that it’s winter, I feel like we rowers spend all week compressing our spines and ribcages: squats, jumps, running, and especially indoor rowing where you compress your lower back at the finish much more than you do on the water.

What’s one of the best ways to loosen up your thorax and let those imbalances click back into line? Jump in the pool! Why?

Let’s not forget that we do participate in a water sport and we need to be strong swimmers “just in case.” There were some tragic events in Connecticut this week that should remind us that even the best of us have 1/16 inch of carbon between us and Davy Jones’ Locker, so we need to feel confident in the water should it ever come to that.

It’s a really hard workout. When you can’t breathe freely, the heart rate shoots up shockingly fast. Try 200m intervals with 3 min rest to simulate 1Ks on the erg and 400m intervals to simulate 2K.

Rowers have massive shoulder girdle strength and elasticity in one plane of motion – horizontal pulling. We tend to be much weaker at pushups, and the elasticity tends to make us really awful at overhead work. Swimming trains the full range of motion in the shoulder girdle, and this is really important for injury prevention during the racing season later on.

Swimming twists and extends the spine and ribcage, which is like having a nice massage after a week of spine compression. Every time I get out of the pool my lower back feels awesome and all the little tweaks on my right or left side magically disappear.

It’s fun. It’s something different. You get to listen to the old dudes singing Sinatra instead of Slayer. It’s a new challenge to master. Let’s face it, winter training is boring. Mix it up by jumping in the pool once a week. Your body and mind will thank you.

I’ve been getting in some practice land paddling with my Kahuna Big Stick. It’s great for stress relief because it’s crazy fun, possibly more fun than actual stand-up paddling because I can keep the gear in the trunk and do it anywhere with no setup. I’ve also found that as I’ve gotten better, I can get quite a good core workout – hams and glutes, core, and shoulders/lats. It’s great for core stability because the motion is similar to the “chop” movement described in the Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss for injury prevention.

Things I’ve learned:

1. How to go up most small hills:

Sick cadence – literally as fast as I can possibly move my arms.

Short strokes, really only from the “pushing” position, no “pull”.

Really bear down on the stick.

Feels like paddling a dragon boat.

2. How to steer:

Use the back foot.

3. How to go down hills without fishtailing:

Start by holding the blade under the front wheel while mounting the board.

Crouch and use the paddle for balance, try not to compensate with toe steering but use the paddle to gradually lean to one side or the other.

4. How to paddle on the “goofy” side – which for me is the left or “starboard” side (remember I’m a rower so I sit backwards and port/starboard are reversed):

Turn the torso full frontal.

While maintaining center of mass (butt) over the board, “bow” the knees out over the regular side so that the stick has room to pass essentially through the hollow under your butt on the goofy side.

I find I need to use a pretty straight upper arm on the paddle to get enough force bearing down to keep the blade planted – more than on my regular side.

I definitely have to pay attention to where I plant the blade, and then push a little outwards to avoid any chance of entangling the blade in the wheels.

I am at the point where I can goofy-side paddle to maintain speed on the flats and avoid paddling on the same side as a pedestrian when I pass them, but I am not good enough to use it for going up hills yet. I think I may never be – the time it would take to switch sides with the paddle would be enough to kill momentum on a hill.

Some of these points are shown in the how-to video. I found that my progression went pretty quickly:

Session 1 – figure out how the whole thing works.

Session 2 – be able to paddle a little on the flats.

Session 3 – be able to steer, small hills, cooking on the flats.

Session 4 – Serious speed, good workout, still not good on hills or goofy side.

Last week I did an extensive post on the importance of precision in maintaining maximal intensity during short interval workouts on the Concept2. I was pleased to see that I am not, in fact, a total nutter, because Bob Kaehler posted on a similar topic this week in his Coach Kaehler column on row2k.

Although I am not in the same league as Bob as a rower, I did have the privilege of training with him at Undine Barge Club in the early 90’s. He was in the “God Quad” while I was still in the development camp boat, before he went on to compete in 3 Olympic Games.

He has a lot of great things to say in his column, and even CrossFitters who are not rowers may find it useful because a lot of his posts have to do with mobility, flexibility, and biomechanics, especially regarding the back and spine. I have faith in his advice because he helped my wife achieve a successful outcome for a herniated disc without surgery. As an example, in a recent post he compares the rowing stroke to a power clean, and is one of the few rowing coaches who seems to target the hamstrings vs. the quads as a key development area for rowers for both strength and flexibility. This obviously makes a lot of sense to anyone who deadlifts.